I think it's going to be a long winter!

Well, I think we dodged a bullet with a hospital stay this weekend (knock on wood that it stays that way and I haven't just jinxed myself). Catherine got her second cold this season and this one led to a temp on Thursday evening (101). I called the doctor and she said that since it sounded like it was definitely a cold and Catherine's counts have been strong that I should wait about an hour and take her temp again. If it trended upward then she wanted me to head up to the resort known as Yale. Thankfully, her temp remained stable so I just gave her some Tylenol and sent her to bed. I kept her home from school Friday and took her to her regular appointment. Her temp at the office was slightly over 100 so they decided that they would access her port and start drawing blood cultures in the event her ANC was below 500, in which case they were going to make us go straight to Yale. Of course this was all happening in the week where her raised chemo doses were to kick in so I knew her counts would be low. They were, but we managed to stay above 500 with a whopping 624! Dr. Joe allowed us to go home with the caveat that if her temp hit 101.5, we were to head up to the hospital. So far we have lucked out and her cold appears to be getting better. I've been giving her some Childrens Nyquil at night. By far the best cold medicine I have ever given one of my kids. For once, a cough suppressant actually did its job! I better stock up before the FDA decides to take all the kids' cold medicines off the shelves. As usual, Catherine was a trooper and seemed upset that we weren't going to the hospital (she was telling me what to pack). Then I reminded her that if she had to go to the hospital, the 3 playdates that are already scheduled for next week would be cancelled. That changed her tune.

Halloween was awesome this year. Catherine woke up with the kind of excitement that one would see at Christmas time. She was Little Red Riding Hood and Alex was Spiderman. Between her Halloween parade at school and trick or treating on our block it was a long day. Trick or Treating on the new block was great. I told Dave that I need to step up my game next year. People gave out goody bags of candy and adult size candy bars! Catherine also had her Unicef box with her and asked people to donate money to the USA (for some reason the word unicef never stuck with her, but at least she's patriotic!) It was definitely one of the better Halloweens and it was nice to be able to do it in daylight since the time change is a week later than normal.

Of course, not to leave Alex out. He is starting to get his own life and I am better at setting playdates up for him. All I have to say is the crazy physical stuff aside, boys are so much easier than girls!!

Thanks for checking in on us and pray that we make it through this winter with a minimal number of hospitalizations!!